After Chicago poll worker dies from COVID-19 and others test positive, city warns voters they might have been exposed to virus at polling places

The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners is notifying voters who cast their ballots in four locations around the city last month that they shared space with people who later tested positive for COVID-19 — including one poll worker who has died.

The poll worker, whom officials identified as city employee Revall Burke, had been at Zion Hill Missionary Baptist Church at 1460 W. 78th St. during the March 17 primary.

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An election judge sanitizes markers at polling place in Chicago on March 17, 2020. (Zbigniew Bzdak / Chicago Tribune)

Voters, poll workers, building owners and managers, field investigators and cartage companies that might have been present are all being notified by letter.

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The letter says: “Although the Board took every precaution possible by supplying poll workers with hand sanitizers, gloves, and instructions for wiping down the equipment, the fact remains that an individual who has now tested positive was likely present while you were voting.

“Please follow all protocol that has been set forth by our federal, state and local agencies if you feel that you may be experiencing any symptoms of COVID-19. If you have tested positive after 17 March 2020, we would greatly appreciate being notified of your situation. Please contact us at 312-269-7858.”

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The board was sharply critical of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s decision to proceed with the election a day after closing bars, restaurants and gatherings of more than 50 people to try to curb the spread of the virus. Pritzker retorted that he did not have the legal authority to postpone the election.

He repeated that assertion in a news conference Monday but said he wants to make it easier to let people vote by mail in November’s general election.

"We were encouraging people not to go to the polls if they could avoid going to the polls. And indeed, I think that’s exactly the same thing that we need to do even more so when we get to the general election," Pritzker said Monday. “I’m advocating that everybody should be applying for a mail ballot if they can, and that’s virtually everybody, and to vote by mail.”